Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1887-07-21

In this increasing monopoly of the
child by the school there is loss also
OF tradition. In games, to be sure, it
still holds. In spite of all the Bows
Own Books and American Girls Books,
and the like, children still learn from
each other, and know marble time and
kite time without reference to the al
manac. But books supersede tradition
in literature, and from the brothers
Grimm to the present industry of folk
lore societies the constant cry is to
save the stories of the people before
they have died ont of memory. Thus
the only tradition which children have,
for the most part, is that which con-
Germs the family. They learn from the
lips of their parents what adventures
fell within the narrow range of their
personal experience. but for all else
they are sent to books. 1t would be
curious inquiry, but no commission for
the purpose is likely to be appointed,
how few children to-day know the story
of Cinderella as told to them, and how
many know it from hearing it read or
from reading it themselves.
Since, then, it is to books that we
must go for the stories which have
grown smooth from being rolled down
the ages of Indo-European peoples, and
since the school SO largely controls the
child's mental growth, it follows that if
these stories are to remain as sub
stantial possession of childhood of all
sorts in America, they must be con
served by school methods The Bill
of Rights for children has never been
formally drawn, but one of its articles
is unquestionably the right to enjoy
these tales. Not all children have an
equal aptitude for appropriating them,
but the instances known of those who
are absolutely indifferent to the charm
of nursery classics at the proper age
are so few that they may be pronounced
abnormal, or referred to some extreme
ly perverse conditions of nurture. But
the right is one which people cannot
well assert for themselves, though
there have been many instances where
the JOY has been snatched covertly and
in a spirit of independence. 1t is the
business of their guardians, therefore,
to see that the children are not de.
prived of this right and, as already
intimated, the present guardians of
children in America are teachers super
intendents, school-committies boards
of education, publishing houses,
agents, makers of school-books, and
occasionally parents. The teachers
have the fullest control, and the in
tluence diminishes along the line of
the remaining forces. twill probably
be said, and by none more earnestly
than the teachers themselves, that they
are bound and hampered by all the
other powers, but my observation
leads me to think pretty much all the
genuine improvement in educational
methods has sprung from the brains
and practical work of teachers.
A prime reason for introducing these
nursery classics into the early years of
school life is in the economy of re-
sources. At present the child passes
from the primer to what are known as
graded readers. These readers con-
tinue through the school course in most
cases, and form the body of literature
to which children are introduced in
school. In the higher grades of these
readers there are often classic poems
and passages from the works of masters
of prose; the proportion of lasting work |
to ephemeral is small; still it exists. |
and many children have known bits OF |
real literature only from their readers. |
But in the lower grades, that is in the |
first, second, third, and even fourth |
readers, there is scarcely piece of |
genuine literature; the proportion Of |
ephemeral to lasting work is enormous.
Yet it is in the years when these grades
are read that the great majority Of |
pass their school life. After
the fourth or fifth year of school the
number of attendants rapidly din1in-
ishes. For the most part, children
close their school life with absolutely |
no introduction to literature. They |
have learned to read, but they have |
had nothing to read.-H. E. Scndder